Underweight 9 year old - is this a bad daily diet?

[Stripyseason]

My 9 year old has always been slim but more so the last few years, she’s now dropped a centile so I’m trying to get her to put weight on but seem to be failing! she doesn’t naturally like dairy or cheese.

breakfast
grapefruit with honey
1 slice white bread
2 x bacon rashers

snack at school
crisps

lunch at school
hot meal- today was spag Bol. Never convinced she eats much of school lunch.

Snack after school
3 oatcakes, handful of pomegranate seeds, bag of crisps

dinner
tuna and sweetcorn pasta
Carrot sticks
fruit frozen pole

supper before bed
potato scone with butter

shes eating as much as her older brother but just not putting on weight, often needs a poo after eating with some tummy cramps but been tested for coeliac/ chrons/ IBD and all bloods fine so gp not doing any further tests,

for reference she hovers around 24jg but goes up or down by 0.1 and that’s it ☹️

24kg!

My 9-year-old son weighs about the same. I think some kids are just naturally slim. My oldest two children went off the bottom of the percentile chart at about that age and were prescribed Pediasure and dietitian interventions to get their weight back on the chart/

My DD was the same - she was tested for coeliac but considered ‘fine’ also. A year later when she was retested her anti ttg levels had gone up (not by a huge amount, and not as elevated as many with coeliac) and an endoscopy/biopsy confirmed that she was indeed coeliac. So I wouldn’t entirely rule it out if symptoms and low weight continue.

I will add that it was a paediatric gastroenterologist who entirely dismissed the idea that DD was coeliac. I had to push hard to get her retested and diagnosed!

How tall is she OP? My 9 year old has always been on the slim side and has dipped into underweight BMI in the past. She has suddenly filled out over the summer and is now 29kg at 135cm, though still looks slim so 24kg seems low to me . She also doesn't eat much of school lunch, but will eat at snack time. Can you swap out the crisps for something a bit more substantial? Banana/ cheese/ yogurt pouch etc? Same with after school snack. I try to get actual food in when they're asking for snacks though I do understand kids preferences for things that come in packets!

I was actually surprised the coeliac/ ibd screens came back negative given her low weight and tummy pains that have been ongoing for so long. It was a consultant gastroenterologist who signed her off last month saying her tests were all fine so nothing more they can do ☹️feel a bit abandoned to be honest. She is just over 1.2m tall I think.

If you feel a few months down the line that she should be retested, push hard and don’t be fobbed off!

For her height and weight she seems to be average.
Using the NHS child BMI calculator she is on the 53rd centile. I guessed the exact date of birth.
You might find the NHS website useful.
All the best

Get her to drink more calories. Try a milkshake after dinner. It's an easy way to pack in an extra few hundred calories especially if she's skipping lunch. Up the rashers of bacon too. Try a bagel instead of one slice of bread. Put peanut butter on the bagel

i wish she’d eat
these! She hates milk and milkshakes and peanut butter and bagels 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Wow that’s reassuring, I was sure she’d be underweight as she’s just so so tiny compared to her peers ☹️

It's not a bad diet but there are foods which take some eating for not not many calories like oatcakes cakes and pomegranate seeds,grapefruit . You are obviously avoiding sugar so reducing high calorie options which given she's not keen on dairy isn't easy. What about eggs ? Banana, avocado .
Anyway what is your instinct? Is she naturally slim and has energy or are you worried.
I'd add in cake , flap jack, biscuits in moderation , more bread, add in a packed lunch. What has she tried re non dairy alternatives to broaden the options.

Is there a problem with being underweight so long as she has energy?
My daughter also has a lot of food aversions. She doesn't like anything creamy or mushy. She doesn't like most meat. This leads to a naturally pretty low calorie diet. I haven't weighed her but she's in 7-8 clothes and she's 9.
Hope you get the stomach issues sorted, your poor daughter

They are fine

Honestly, kindly, so many kids are overweight these days, i think it does make average children seem skinnier. She sounds like she eats healthily for a child this age. I was 27kg when I left primary school age 11 and did see a consultant back in the 80s about this who said i'm just slim. Average height and I remain a fairly slim at 55kg and eat huge amounts, I think much more than friends, but walk a lot. For context my mum and mum's side are all obese, dad's side slim and I honestly think it's metabolic and got my dad's side. I got hyperemesis in pregnancy and kept nothing down but put on 20kg on lemonade. It was like my metabolism completely changed because there's no way I kept enough down to put on that amount of weight.

My 3 kids are lower centile in weight than height, this is just their average. The tummy pain/ toileting is more a concern. Keep an eye on it I guess. If she toilets after meals see of there's a pattern with certain foods? Also stress can affect the gut. Good luck and well done for looking out for your daughter.

My daughters are quite petite and had good appetites and liked most foods. Their father is 6'2" and I am 5'7". The oldest, at 12, was still around your daughter's weight at 12. She is also short, 5'. I remember when she reached 5' at 16, it was a celebration. She was about 40kg then. She's an adult, still petite and doing great. My youngest is about 5'3" and lanky and was naturally thin, and was about 24kg until age 12, then started gaining.

Hey OP- my DS is similar , he’s in Year 5- 135cm and 3st 11- it puts him at the 1st centile. His waist is tiny, and for example for shorts to fit him he wears a 6-7 yrs.
He eats well, doesn’t put on weight.
However I was the same as a child and pretty much until I had my 2nd child. He was also born 2nd -9th centile for weight and height so was never going to be massive.

One thing I’m acutely aware of however , having been very slim growing up and essentially then developing a bit of a complex about my weight is making sure I don’t comment on his constantly. Growing up everyone had something to say about me being slim, it had such a determinate impact on me - so just be really mindful of this .

Also it sounds like she gets weighed a lot-it’s also not healthy at all….

My 11 year old DD is 22kg.

She's slim and wears clothes for an 8 year old at times.

BUT she's super fit (taekwondo black belt) active and happy. As a PP has said, I think we've lost sight of what is a healthy weight in this country, especially for kids.

It looks like she’s average weight from previous posters posts. Surely the Dr told you this?

Some school dinners are DIRE . Are you in London OP? They made school dinners free for all but didn't increase the budget for them. I'd swap to packed lunches.

Lactose intolerant? Gluten intolerant?

Your daughter is not underweight, she’s a healthy weight for her height. The problem is her peers are likely to be overweight or even obese (the statistics on this are shocking).

having said that, I would echo previous poster about the high effort low calorie food. The grapefruit jumps out - swap it for a banana. Would she tolerate avocado, unsalted mixed nuts etc?

I don't think she's underweight... she sounds about right for her height. My 9 year old DD is about 140cm and 25kg and she just moved from the underweight range to the acceptable range.

Your DD's diet looks ok to me! Are you skinny too? I am skinny and DD takes after me.

Try switching out the crisps, if she has got tummy troubles these could be making it worse. Would she try hummus chips or something like that?